Secondhand Lions: Critic Reviews

With no baseline 'truth' to be found among the cartoony characters and cheesy twists, the whole production feels like a Texas-size load of secondhand lyin'.

May be pure hokum, but at least it knows how to spin a yarn.

There are too many leaden moments and odd shifts in tone to keep Lions from winning us over.

Of little interest to anyone except those who thought Air Bud was too smutty.

It's pretty appalling, and it's boring.

Secondhand Lions is made from a child's perspective, but its point of view has a glass eye.

A thirdhand lark.

This story is so lamely conceived and presented that it's a grind.

Audiences may get twitchy during some of the more obvious moments, but they'll look back on the film with a smile.

A gentle and sweet whimsy.

With such a bang-up cast, this setup could at least elicit some tears, but in its 107 minutes, nary a one welled up in my eyes.

Lions' iron whimsy is a jackhammer on the heart.

There's something for everyone: comedy, drama and romance.

Secondhand Lions is not a great movie, but you'd have to be an old coot not to like it at least a bit.

A saccharine, inoffensive kids movie, which might seem more at home as a made-for-cable affair.

An air of contrivance and, worse, fraudulence, hangs over this gentle fantasy, despite some charming moments.

Despite a star-studded cast and healthy helpings of sentiment, nostalgia and heart, it's a hollow affair that's content to tell the viewer how to feel rather than earning those feelings through its story and performances.

Secondhand Lions manages to squander the services of seasoned vets Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, and promising newcomer Haley Joel Osment, with a tale that is dramatically false and disturbingly vicious.

One of those headed-for-cable oddities that must have sounded like a good idea at the time.

Despite flaws that are (for the most part) easily overlooked, this film has enough charm and whimsy to capture the attention and imagination of children and parents alike.

Awash in nostalgia, Lions combines a gentle coming-of-age story with swashbuckling fantasy.

A mild family film with an excellent cast that never develops traction.